The King Edward VII statue in Queen’s Park, Toronto, was originally unveiled in 1922 in Edward Park in Delhi, India. Artist Thomas Brock’s critics questioned the depiction of a Northerner going hatless in the intense Indian summer heat. However, the commissioning Committee defended the design, claiming that “such a defiance of the sun’s power would… impress the people of India…The ruler of the British Empire could properly be shown doing what no other Englishman would do.” The original statue portrays King Edward VII as the sovereign ruler of the Empire “on which the sun never set,” godlike in his ability to withstand the power of the sun.
In 1947, when India was celebrating its independence and removing public reminders of British Rule, the statue was placed in storage until 1968 when the chairman of the board of Empire Sun Insurance in Canada, Harry Jackman, paid to have it transported to Toronto.
This proposal is to melt Thomas Brock’s original equestrian statue in order to upturn the colonial narrative of Empire and demonstrate the ultimate power of the sun.